N/J/F/U

Prince created several of the best albums from the 1980s, and the first of these was 1999. One of the lesser known tracks on that album is a number called D/M/S/R, which was a sly way of getting a song about sex onto the record.

Nobody thinks much about songs with that word in the title today, but in 1982 that wasn’t the case. So like the fact that J.K. Rowling’s publisher used her initials to mask the fact that she is a woman, Prince named his song about “Dance Music Sex Romance” with an acronym, and threw in the slashes for good measure. The title to this piece–which also contains a word I can’t use if I want anyone to actually read this–is a tribute to Prince. And I don’t imagine anyone needs to be told what the letter (or the word it represents) actually is.

Chris Christie rubs me the wrong way, and maybe that’s his appeal, at least for some people. And I want to believe there are better, more meaningful topics to write about, but with the Cowboys and the Packers playing each other in Green Bay this weekend, here we are. The call of the orange sweater cannot be denied.

If any state was foolish enough to elect me as their governor, I wouldn’t repay their confidence by turning my back on any of their sports teams. Yes, the two teams that play in the new Meadowlands (or MetLife Stadium, if you prefer that nomenclature) are nominally not New Jersey teams. But don’t tell me that the revenue they bring into the state’s coffers on Sunday doesn’t matter, either.

Maybe Christie doesn’t want to support one or the other, at the expense of the other team. And let’s even stipulate that the New Jersey residents in the suburbs of Philadelphia who are Eagles fans don’t deserve his support, either. Fine. The governor could be diplomatic and stay out of the football fray altogether, then.

But to spurn all of these teams in favor of a team that located in Dalls makes no sense, at all. Flying to the games, whether it’s on Jerry Jones’ dime or not, just seems like a bad idea to me. And yet he will be in Lambeau Field this weekend, as some sort of a high-profile hanger-on.

The Cowboys were my favorite NFL team when I was a kid, because of Roger Staubach and “America’s Team” and all the rest. Too Tall Jones, the shotgun formation, Tom Landry: I understand that much. They wore white, and the Pittsburgh Steelers wore black. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

But the people of New Jersey–and the fans of the various NFL teams who either play in New Jersey or have fans there–can expect their governor to put this childish enthusiasm away, at least for public consumption. But apparently I’m wrong about this, at least so far as Governor Christie is concerned.

Rooting for the Packers is hard, and perhaps even impossible, for someone who considers himself a true Chicagoan. But rooting against the Cowboys and their orange sweater-clad supporter won’t be difficult, at all. It should be an interesting game up in Wisconsin on Sunday.